The present invention is directed to a wheel chock having a vertically extending handle secured to the base of the wheel chock to assist in the insertion and removal of the wheel chock relative to a tire and photosensing means associated with the handle and the wheel chock for detecting whether or not the wheel chock is in locking relation to a wheel.
The use of wheel chocks for blocking movement of a wheel on a vehicle is old and well known in the art. A conventional wheel chock has a substantially triangular cross-sectional configuration with one of the surfaces extending upwardly from the base having a curvature complementary to the wheel curvature.
The U.S. patent to Rennick (U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,629) discloses such a wheel chock used to maintain a truck or a trailer portion thereof in proximate location to a loading dock for loading and unloading thereof. The wheel chock is provided with a wheel operated switch which controls the movement of a gate to raise the gate from a blocking position to a non-blocking position when the wheel chock is in a proper blocking position. Rennick discloses that the switch may be operated by means of a pivoted flap or may be an optical-electrical device employing a photocell or the like for sensing the truck""s presence.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,496,499, 2,720,285, 5,685,397 and 5,913,389 disclose wheel chocks having various types of handle structures connected thereto. However, none of the handle structures have the shape or orientation relative to the wheel chock as disclosed by the handle structure of the present invention. Furthermore, none of these references disclose the use of any electrical switches or photocells used in conjunction with the handles or the wheel chocks.
The present invention provides a new and improved wheel chock assembly having a handle assembly significantly different from the handle structures of the prior art as well as new and improved sensing means associated with the wheel chock per se and the handle structure per se for sensing the presence of a wheel relative to the wheel chock to provide a redundant sensing arrangement not disclosed or suggested by the prior art.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent and more readily appreciated from the following detailed description of preferred exemplary embodiment of the present invention, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.